In what could be termed as a significant achievement towards the completion of the Jacob Circle-Wadala Monorail corridor, a 450-tonne girder bridge was successfully launched over the railway tracks at Currey Road in the wee hours of Sunday.

The operation to launch the girder started sharp at 12:30 am and concluded by 04:30 am — well before the allocated period of five hours. Pic/Tushar Satam

It took four hours for the MMRDA-L&T authorities, railway officials and over 200 workers to launch the girder. The MMRDA and contractor have been working non-stop for the past three months to ensure a perfect execution. “The new steel bridge will connect the monorail route from Mint Colony on the east side to Lower Parel station on the west side of the monorail corridor,” said MMRDA Joint Project Director Dilip Kawathkar.

Over the topThe operation required launching the bridge on several high-capacity rollers mounted over various trestles installed to bear the weight of the gigantic — 62-metre long and 9.5-metre — bridge. The entire operation was executed following a fortnight of meticulous planning by introducing mega-blocks, diverting and re-scheduling train services running between CST and Dadar station.

“The launching of the bridge went well. In fact, the work was completed before time following which train services began as scheduled,” said Amitabh Ojha, Divisional Railway Manager (Mumbai), Central Railway.

The operation started sharp at 12:30 am after the winches started pushing the bridge over the tracks and concluded by 04:30 am — well before the allocated period of five hours.

Good news for devoteesThe launching of the bridge is good news for devotees who throng the area to visit renowned Ganpati mandals in Lalbaug and Parel, as the MMRDA has plans to reopen the Currey Road rail over bridge before Ganeshotsav. The MMRDA had cordoned off the bridge for over four months to carry out the Monorail work.

A centurion

It should be noted that the Currey Road bridge will celebrate its 100th anniversary in the coming months. “The Great Indian Peninsula Railway (GIPR) was the first railway to be established in India and Asia, which was later transformed into what we now know as the Indian Railways. The Currey Road bridge was built by GIPR in 1915 and the inscription on the bridge still shows the name of the contractor who built it,” said Kawathkar.